The lawsuit, filed by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association (HFPA) against Penske Media Corporation (PMC) over its 2023 acquisition of the Golden Globes, is now seeking at least $150 million in damages, according to the full complaint. New details allege that PMC reneged on promises of lifetime voting rights and tickets made to HFPA members during the sale, instead limiting voting rights to those who accepted direct employment with the "Penske Trust" — creating what the suit calls "a captured voting body" beholden to PMC rather than an independent press organisation. The suit also accuses PMC, which owns Variety and other trade titles, of wielding monopoly power over trade media, the "secondary awards" market and the "For Your Consideration" advertising market, and of deliberately excluding HFPA members from them.

The complaint further reveals that the HFPA, originally expected to dissolve after selling the Globes, had its board vote last year to pause that wind-down specifically to investigate alleged "malfeasance and conflicts of interest" surrounding the sale. PMC issued a robust denial, stating the 2023 transaction "closed more than three years ago and received all required approvals" and dismissing any suggestion it could be reversed as "unequivocally false." The company branded the lawsuit "duplicity" and a "new low," accusing former HFPA members of misusing the independent nonprofit Golden Globe Foundation merely to secure show tickets.